The 2011 Budget Is A Spending And Debt Tsunami

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, last week President Obama unveiled his new budget for fiscal year 2011. I am afraid this budget will result in more of the same runaway spending that led to a record $1.4 trillion deficit last year. Just like the budget the President introduced a year ago, this budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. It includes $3.8 trillion in Federal spending for 2011, a record high. It projects a $1.6 trillion deficit, a record high. It assumes $2 trillion in tax hikes over the next 10 years, a record high. And it estimates $14 trillion in government debt that will be inherited by our children and grandchildren. In fact, the President's budget will more than double the Federal Government's public debt.

One of the most touted parts of this budget is its call for a spending freeze, which is a good idea. Just like the millions of Americans who have adjusted their budgets, the Federal Government should respond to record deficits by halting its spending expansion. But unfortunately, this budget freeze is merely papering over our record Federal deficits. Instead of a meaningful freeze, the proposed freeze in the budget covers only one-eighth of the Federal budget. That means that more than 80 percent of the Federal Government will continue to grow under this so-called freeze.

A freeze that allows the vast majority of programs to stay on the path of unsustainable growth will not solve our budget problems. And so this budget predicts another year of record deficits. More than one in three dollars spent by the Federal Government next year will be borrowed. With such astonishing deficits and debt, we need much more than a freeze on one-eighth of government spending.

We should be taking a hard look for underperforming areas where we can reduce spending. Congress could also start tackling our debt problem by immediately passing strict budget caps that will limit Federal spending each year. Unfortunately, this looks unlikely to happen also. Instead, Democrats in Congress, along with President Obama, appear to be dead set on pushing a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care and another multibillion-dollar stimulus plan.

Just last week, Democrats in Congress showed their true colors by passing a $1.9 trillion increase in the national debt limit, making way for more deficit spending. After all, reckless spending requires reckless borrowing. Federal spending on so-called discretionary programs increased 84 percent over the past 2 years. These increases have been financed entirely by new debt. The time has come to stop these out-of-touch spending increases so we don't have to keep jacking up the national debt.

The President's budget lacks the sort of spending accountability Americans want from Washington. It contains more spending, more debt, and more taxes, which will not restore our economy or help the unemployed in North Carolina and around the country find work. Government growth and exploding debt are just more of the same big government policies that Americans are weary of watching in Washington. While President Obama's budget does get some things right, it unfortunately gets most things wrong. As North Carolina taxpayers continue to tighten their belts, we can do better than $1.6 trillion in new debt for more wasteful Washington spending.

Republicans are ready to go line by line through the Federal budget to cut wasteful spending. The debts Congress is racking up are not going to go away if we don't get a handle on spending. And during a time of double digit unemployment, the American people want solutions that will encourage economic growth and help create jobs, not just more debt for our children and grandchildren to pay off.

Madam Speaker, we cannot borrow, spend, and tax our way back to a growing economy.

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